Illinois River

Amid the flooded cornfields that surround what was once the town of Florence, Ill., Martha Pinchuk is making house calls. A nurse from Boca Raton and a Red Cross volunteer, Pinchuk has spent the past two weeks in the flooded Midwest, trudging through the high water to make sure those still living in outlying pockets are getting by. "They do like to know that somebody cares," said Pinchuk, a veteran of several recent disaster relief efforts who was...

Amid the flooded cornfields that surround what was once the town of Florence, Ill., Martha Pinchuk is making house calls. A nurse from Boca Raton and a Red Cross volunteer, Pinchuk has spent the past two weeks in the flooded Midwest, trudging through the high water to make sure those still living in outlying pockets are getting by. "They do like to know that somebody cares," said Pinchuk, a veteran of several recent disaster relief efforts who was...

Record floodwaters Wednesday forced hundreds of Illinois families from their riverside homes. Residents of some towns requested sandbags to stack along the swollen rivers, but authorities said they were powerless to stop the rising waters. A storm that blitzed New England with up to 20 inches of snow pushed out to sea, but intense squalls cut visibility along Massachusetts Route 6 on Cape Cod, causing a rash of accidents and forcing police to close part of the road. Winter storm warnings were posted for the mountains of northeastern and eastern California, and travelers` advisories were issued for Oregon`s Cascade Mountains, northeastern Nevada and northwestern California.

PRINCETON, Ill.-- Our two horses came slowly down the steep trail that led out of the woods and into an open field, picking their way in earth beginning to firm in the late autumn chill. We held our reins loosely so the horses could navigate on their own. They broke into a trot as they cleared the woods. We drew them up and looked ahead at a long, gently sloping field with short-cropped grass. The land appeared to be settling down before a season of retreat. The cropland lay vacant, only tufts of dry leaves remained on the trees and the visible world was empty at that moment of all man`s activities but our own. Jeff Lampe, my guide, and I were of the same mind; without talk we wheeled the horses and drove them into a swift canter across the grassy slope.

CHICAGO - The golden grain of a surprisingly good harvest has already begun to move from now-barren Midwest fields on its long journey to feed the Soviet people. The bounty of America`s heartland is being used once again to prevent hunger. And, perhaps, help the Midwestern farmer. While almost nobody is predicting starvation this winter in Russia and the other Soviet republics, many observers fear that a breakdown of the economy and spotty distribution of food may lead to social unrest, the rupture of fragile democratic reforms and even a new dictatorship.

PRINCETON, Ill.-- Our two horses came slowly down the steep trail that led out of the woods and into an open field, picking their way in earth beginning to firm in the late autumn chill. We held our reins loosely so the horses could navigate on their own. They broke into a trot as they cleared the woods. We drew them up and looked ahead at a long, gently sloping field with short-cropped grass. The land appeared to be settling down before a season of retreat. The cropland lay vacant, only tufts of dry leaves remained on the trees and the visible world was empty at that moment of all man`s activities but our own. Jeff Lampe, my guide, and I were of the same mind; without talk we wheeled the horses and drove them into a swift canter across the grassy slope.

LITTLE AMERICA, Ill. -- Once a hotspot for foot-stomping Saturday night dances, the restaurant with peeling paint and four crumbling chimneys long ago fell silent. Weeds poke through the asphalt of the abandoned gas station. The Flavor Queen sign tempts -- but the ice cream counter is hardly even a memory. Two people sit beneath a shade tree, the hood of their station wagon raised in that symbol of helplessness. "It had to break down in a town that isn`t a town," the woman huffs. "There isn`t even a gas station."

Volunteers piled sandbags along the rising Illinois River Thursday but authorities said there was little they could do to save two towns where floodwaters reached the rooftops of abandoned houses. They warned the worst was yet to come. Water spilling from the Illinois threatened the river basin with its worst flooding in history, and at least 300 families along a 20-mile stretch fled to higher ground. Gov. James R. Thompson declared 10 counties disaster areas. Volunteers stacked sandbags along the river banks but the towns of Rome, where floodwaters reached the rooftops of evacuated houses, and Liverpool were "lost to any flood-fighting efforts," said Emergency Services and Disaster Agency spokesman Greg Durham.

A person of interest in the shooting deaths of Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson's mother and brother was transferred to the Illinois Department of Corrections on Sunday for violating his parole after he stopped cooperating with police, authorities and law enforcement sources said. Meanwhile, Chicago police and the FBI continued to search for the actress' nephew, Julian King, 7, who was reported missing the same day Darnell Donerson and Jason Hudson were discovered shot to death. Police fanned out into Englewood, Ill., and surrounding neighborhoods, handing out fliers with a photograph of the boy and description of the white Chevrolet Suburban he may have been taken in. William Balfour, the estranged husband of Hudson's sister, Julia, has been questioned and denies any involvement in the killings or the disappearance of the boy, law enforcement sources said.

John Hartford bought his first Gibson banjo with money he made working on the Mississippi Valley Barge Line when he was 15 years old. He started playing the fiddle about the same time. Since then, Hartford has turned his obsessions with the river, the banjo and the fiddle into an inimitable style that has made Hartford the Mark Twang of American music. On Saturday, Hartford brings his instruments, the amplified board he dances on and his bizarre sense of humor to the Amaturo Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

CHICAGO - The golden grain of a surprisingly good harvest has already begun to move from now-barren Midwest fields on its long journey to feed the Soviet people. The bounty of America`s heartland is being used once again to prevent hunger. And, perhaps, help the Midwestern farmer. While almost nobody is predicting starvation this winter in Russia and the other Soviet republics, many observers fear that a breakdown of the economy and spotty distribution of food may lead to social unrest, the rupture of fragile democratic reforms and even a new dictatorship.

LITTLE AMERICA, Ill. -- Once a hotspot for foot-stomping Saturday night dances, the restaurant with peeling paint and four crumbling chimneys long ago fell silent. Weeds poke through the asphalt of the abandoned gas station. The Flavor Queen sign tempts -- but the ice cream counter is hardly even a memory. Two people sit beneath a shade tree, the hood of their station wagon raised in that symbol of helplessness. "It had to break down in a town that isn`t a town," the woman huffs. "There isn`t even a gas station."

Volunteers piled sandbags along the rising Illinois River Thursday but authorities said there was little they could do to save two towns where floodwaters reached the rooftops of abandoned houses. They warned the worst was yet to come. Water spilling from the Illinois threatened the river basin with its worst flooding in history, and at least 300 families along a 20-mile stretch fled to higher ground. Gov. James R. Thompson declared 10 counties disaster areas. Volunteers stacked sandbags along the river banks but the towns of Rome, where floodwaters reached the rooftops of evacuated houses, and Liverpool were "lost to any flood-fighting efforts," said Emergency Services and Disaster Agency spokesman Greg Durham.

Record floodwaters Wednesday forced hundreds of Illinois families from their riverside homes. Residents of some towns requested sandbags to stack along the swollen rivers, but authorities said they were powerless to stop the rising waters. A storm that blitzed New England with up to 20 inches of snow pushed out to sea, but intense squalls cut visibility along Massachusetts Route 6 on Cape Cod, causing a rash of accidents and forcing police to close part of the road. Winter storm warnings were posted for the mountains of northeastern and eastern California, and travelers` advisories were issued for Oregon`s Cascade Mountains, northeastern Nevada and northwestern California.

Here`s a trans-America tour of new casino developments. --COLORADO: The west is a little wilder again in towns like Central City and Cripple Creek, with small casinos nestled into historic, Old West buildings. John Sharpe, executive director for the Cripple Creek Chamber of Commerce, says that around 15,000 people gamble daily in a busy month at the 25 casinos open in this old mining town 20 miles west of Colorado Springs. The population -- 600 in 1990 -- has doubled. Among the more interesting gaming houses are Bronco Billy`s; Palace Hotel & Casino, the town`s oldest hotel, and Phenix with an attached Remington/Russell art gallery.